Conservatoire Populaire de Musique, Switzerland
Orchestra at school
“Orchestra at School” is
a concept which aims at rendering the practice of a musical
instrument accessible to school kids through the constitution of a
class orchestra and appropriate musical teaching. The underlying is
not only to develop musical competence, but also to get associated
skills and values get across, such as creativity, group work,
ability to perform before an audience, strengthening of social
relationships, etc. In this particular project, the social
dimension is particularly emphasized as the classes targeted are
located in a low-income area of Geneva; the project will thus reach
out to groups that are usually excluded from the field of academic
music and where the values carried by music can make a real
difference for the future of these children.
The project will be a
joint-venture between the Conservatoire Populaire de
Musique (specialized in reaching out for low-income
populations), the Geneva Ministry of Education and the Trafigura
Foundation. The initial pilot phase took place in 2010-2011
school-year.
This first donation
allowed the Orchestra at School to equip 2 classes with a set of 20
wind instruments each. Given the success of the initial stage and
the strong demand from the beneficiary schools, the
CPM decided to add 2 new classes, still in the same school
area, to the project.
In total, it was 4 classes benefitting during
2 years from the project, the instruments being rolled from class
to class over time.
This project is in the vein of the
line "access to musical culture" which we have supported on several
programmes now: Lucerne symphony Orchestra, NOCCA, Nuits du
Mont-Rome Festival.
Given the genuine impact of
the project and the motivation of the children, the Trafigura
Foundation has decided to donate 2 more sets of 20 wind
instruments each in 2011.
A total of 80 instruments have
been donated to this programme that give
young people the oportunity to access musical culture.